Richard Lazzaro

Artist Biography:

Richard Lazzaro has been an advocate for abstract painting for more than fifty years as an artist and teacher. Over the years his experimentation in painting moved away from the reference of the visible world to an exploration of flat space, movement, color, direct painting and the use of nonspecific imagery. His work is intended to narrate his anxieties and desires in a language that is playful and fostering of the free expression of the creative unconscious and to evoke vigorous and lyrical expression---a vitality of spirit and life movement.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1937, Lazzaro studied at the Cleveland Institute of Art (1955-59), Kent State University (BFA, 1961), and the University of Illinois (MFA, 1963).  He taught at the University of Illinois from 1961-63, and is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he taught drawing and painting from 1963 - 2001 and served as Graduate Program Chairman and 2-D Area Chairman during his tenure.  He has lived in Mexico, New York City and Europe.  He resides in Stoughton, Wisconsin where he and his wife, Giovanna, owned and operated an art gallery.

His art has been in several invitational exhibitions including:  "Young Americans, 1958", American Federation of Arts (New York City); "Art Across America", traveling the U.S. 1965-67;  "American Exploratory Painting", 1971, Numazu City, Japan;  "American Contemporary Art", Brooks Memorial Galleries;  "Ten Painters '77", Walker Art Center, Minneapolis;  "Midwest Painters and Sculptors", Krannert Art Museum and the Indiana University Art Museum; "President's Annual Invitational '79", Madison Museum of Contemporary Art; "Watercolors, Historic and Contemporary", Hathorn Museum; "Americans in Florence", Florence, Italy;  "A Study in Regional Taste", Cleveland Museum of Art; "Wisconsin Painters and Sculptors", Milwaukee Art Museum;  "First International '88", Atlanta; "Vancouver International '98", Canada;  "3rd International of Tsai Mo Art", Taichung Culture Center, Taiwan (traveling to France, San Salvador, Shen Zen), "2000: Beyond the Century International", Taichung Culture Center, Taiwan; "Pivot Points: Six Painters, Six Poets" (traveling the U.S. and South America, 2003 - 2006).

Group and solo shows include:  Cleveland Museum of Art, the Butler Institute of American Art, Walker Art Center, Portland Museum of Art, Seattle Museum of Art, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Madison Art Center, Charles Allis Museum of Art, La Jolla Museum of Art, Oklahoma Art Center, Dayton Art Institute, Chazen Museum of Art, Elvehjem Museum of Art, B.K. Smith Galleries (Lake Erie College), Overture Center for the Arts (Madison), Kennedy Center for the Arts (Washington DC), the Ukranian Culture Center of Chicago, Taichung Culture Center (Taiwan), Knoedler Galleries (New York City), Jane Haslem Gallery (Washington D.C.),  Gilman Galleries (Chicago),  Bertha Schaefer Gallery (New York City),  Kathryn Sermas Gallery (New York City), OK Harris Gallery (New York City),  Ross Widen Gallery (Cleveland), Gallery U (Cleveland), Dennis Uhlig Fine Arts (Milwaukee), Jack Pollack Gallery (Toronto), Blackwood Gallery (Pittsburg), Soho Myriad Gallery (Atlanta), Calvin Charles Gallery (Scottsdale), Galeria Tournaboni (Florence, Italy), Galeria German Kruger (Lima, Peru), the Drawing Center of New York (Manhattan),  University of Illinois Krannert Museum, University of Wisconsin-Madison Memorial Union Gallery, Northern Michigan University,  University of North Dakota, Westchester University, the Cleveland Institute of Art among many others.

His art is in more than 400 public and private collections in the United States, Canada, China, England, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Taiwan and Ukraine.